Lives in the Yiddish
TheatreSHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN
THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"1931-1969

David
Beigelman

Born in March 1887 in Ostrowce,
Radom Gubernia (in Russian Poland), into a musical
family. His musical education began when he was very
young. He joined a theatre orchestra at the age of eight.
Later he began directing and conducting. In 1912 he
became conductor of the orchestra at Zandberg's Yiddish
theatre in Lodz, in which his father acted. Despite
more lucrative opportunities to work for Polish
orchestras, he remained with the Yiddish theatre.

[According to his
declaration of intention to join the Professional Actors
Union in Poland (dated 6 January 1923), he had
previously worked in the following theatres/cities:
Epelbergen's (Warsaw), Adler's (Lodz), Kompanayetz's
(Lodz), L. Kahan's (Lodz) -- ed.]

From 1928, B. was the
composer for the Yiddish theatre in Lwow, and during this
period, he wrote scores for Dr. Tsipor's "Revolt" and
Levitas' "The Sentence". On the eve of World War II, he
wrote the score for Turkow's musical comedy "The African
Son."

From the 1920s on, B. tried
to immigrate to America without success.

In the late 1930s, he
composed a score for a large potpourri of the work of A.
Goldfaden. This, along with the vast majority of B.’s
work, was lost during the Holocaust.

At the outbreak of World War
II, B. returned to Lodz. While in the ghetto, he and
Moshe Pulaver (formerly an actor with the Ararat Theatre)
organized a theatre. B. not only wrote new scores for
their productions, he even wrote plays and librettos.

B. was part of the last group of
Lodz Jews to be deported to Auschwitz. He brought his violin and
all his scores with him. Even in the camp, he tried to provide
entertainment for his fellow Jews. He lived until Liberation,
but died immediately thereafter.

Sh. Kaczerginski published some of
B.’s songs in his "Lider fun di getos un lagern". These included
“Tsigayner lid” (The Gypsy Song) and “A yidish lidl” (A Little
Jewish Song)—to which B. wrote both the lyrics and music.

B. also wrote the music for the
following, which are published in the same collection: “Zamdn gliyen af
der zun” (Sand Shines in the Sun), “Kleyner volkn” (Small
Clouds), “Kinder yorn” (Childhood), “Shpiglt zikh af shoyb di
zun” (The Sun Reflecting on the Window Pane), “Makh tsu di
eygelekh” (Close Your Eyes), “Nit keyn rozinkes, nit keyn
mandlen” (No Almonds, No Raisins), “Ikh leb in geto, in kavkaz”
(I Live in the Ghetto, in the Caucasus), and “Dos shnayderl”
(The Little Tailor). Kaczerginski was able to publish some of
these with their melodies.

B. was married to the well-known
actress Andzhe Foderman. She was killed earlier on. Their only
son, Pinyek (also a musician), survived the war in Russia, and
thereafter came to America.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon
of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig,
Volume 5, page 3725.
Also see an earlier biography of David Beigelman in Volume 1 by clicking
here.